


Determined to Persevere: An UnderTale

by Queenfighterfly



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-21 08:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18139619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queenfighterfly/pseuds/Queenfighterfly
Summary: Kit wasn't ready to be a mother. Hell, she could barely make due for herself, let alone a child. But Frisk needed someone to look out for her, and Kit was the only one available to look out for her.She had months to prepare. She did everything she could to become as prepared as she could to raise and look after Frisk.But there was one thing neither of them could have possibly prepared for. One thing that no one was truly prepared for.{Loosely based on the 2015 indie hit video game UNDERTALE, featuring new characters, locations, and headcanons.}





	1. Once Upon a Time

* * *

 

[ _Once upon a time, over 500 years ago..._ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBbxkhH3fPc)

_Humans were not the only race to dominate the Earth. It was shared by mysterious, magical creatures known simply as Monsters. They were not creatures of flesh and blood like you or I. They were made entirely of magic, projected from their souls, the culmination of the beings of every sentient creature. They came in many shapes, sizes, forms and breeds, all capable of fantastic magical feats._

_For thousands of years, monsters and humans shared the Earth in peace and harmony._

_Until one fateful day, when tensions grew into fear and hostility, and a terrible war soon broke out between humans and monsters. Monsters had many magical capabilities, including the power to absorb human souls, with which they could transform into beasts of awesome power._

_However, monsters were far weaker than humans, and despite the best efforts of the many monster kingdoms, humans were the ultimate victors of the war._

_Monsters all over the world were chased into underground caverns and_ _caves_ _and sealed_ _there by_ _a magical spell cast by the world’s greatest wizards of that era, never to see the surface again._

_Time passed. Magic had been outlawed and ostracized in many parts of the world, and the practice faded over time. The gifts continued to pass down through_ _bloodlines_ _but were a_ _well-kept_ _secret from the public and their communities._

_Many years later..._

_Legends say that those who climb the fabled Mt._ _Ebott_ _, one of the many sites where monsters were forever sealed underground, never return._

* * *

 


	2. Fallen Down

_“Get away from my daughter, you possessed freak!”_

_“She’s not your daughter anymore! Just leave us alone!”_

_“Honey, sweetheart, just come home with us... We’ll do better, I promise, just come back!”_

_“No! No no no no!”_

_“Wait, Fr--Hold on, don’t--Get away from the edge!!”_

_“Stop! Let go of her!”_

_“Oh my god, will you stop already?! I’m trying to help her!”_

_“Stop!!”_

_“Don’t worry... We’re gonna be alright, Frisk.”_

_“Frisk, get up!”_

_“Frisk!”_

* * *

**Mt. Ebott, USA**  
March 2nd, 2020  
**10:45 AM**

**RUINS ENTRANCE**

“Frisk!”

As though waking from a bad dream, six-year-old Frisk twitched and gasped sharply as her eyes opened wide. As per usual when awoken, she could only see vague splashes of color and light coming from over her head. It took a second for her senses to come back to her; the soreness in her muscles, followed by her realizing she was on her back, her head supported by the hand of someone older and bigger than her. The soft, sturdy paws of a large cat nervously kneaded at her chest, trying to urge her to move as an anxious purr rumbled into Frisk's chest.

It took a few more seconds for the vague outline and basic features of her adult companion to come into as clear of focus as they were going to. And when they did, Frisk gasped in the realization of who was next to her and rapidly sat up, the large cat previously pawing at her chest jumping away to let her. Frisk reached up for where she was sure the older woman's shirt was, her breath still heavy and startled as her hands grabbed and tugged at the woman's jacket.

Twenty-six-year-old [Kit](https://sta.sh/01mthx0q1mfr) flinched in surprise when Frisk suddenly jumped up to grab hold of her without any warning. But when she heard Frisk let out frantic and frightened whines and gasps for air, her lightly tanned, scarred hands took a gentle hold of Frisk's shivering shoulders. She let Frisk's tiny hands grip at her shirt and her thick tufts of long, wavy brown hair, and wrapped her own hands around Frisk's small back. Frisk wasn't crying, but her fast breathing served as a warning that she might start if she didn't calm down.

grabbed and tugged at the woman's jacket.

Twenty-six-year-old [Kit](https://sta.sh/01mthx0q1mfr) flinched in surprise when Frisk suddenly jumped up to grab hold of her without any warning. But when she heard Frisk let out frantic and frightened whines and gasps for air, her lightly tanned, scarred hands took a gentle hold of Frisk's shivering shoulders. She let Frisk's tiny hands grip at her shirt and her thick tufts of long, wavy brown hair, and wrapped her own hands around Frisk's small back. Frisk wasn't crying, but her fast breathing served as a warning that she might start if she didn't calm down.

"Oh, geez..." Kit sighed softly with a small smile of relief, one hand patting the back of Frisk's head while her other stroked up and down Frisk's back. "You're okay, honey... Just breath, okay? I'm right here, Mocha's right here, everything's fine. It's aaall good."

Kit shifted from her knees to sitting on her butt to pull Frisk into her lap and began rocking slightly to try to help Frisk calm down, beckoning the soft brown Maine Coon cat - Mocha - to come to sit beside her with a short whistle, which Mocha heeded. As she listened to Frisk's breathing start to steady and slow down, Kit took a long look at the room around them, her brow pinching.

The three of them seemed to have been resting on a large bed of soft, bright golden flowers amidst a patch of equally soft, lively green grass. The walls around them were barren, crudely chipped and carved rock, with only one tunnel headed elsewhere in front of them surrounded by a large, dark purple pillared archway. The room was very dim, and looking up, Kit found that the only light coming into the small cave was from the hole several dozens of feet above them, leading up hundreds, maybe even thousands, of feet up to the surface. Even that wasn't much, considering how far down they were, but it was enough. A large black backpack lay several feet away, its contents spilling out across the flower bed. Kit could only pray her laptop survived.

After a few minutes, Frisk's breathing had evened out and she pushed away from Kit, rubbing her eyes with her sleeve and taking one last deep breath, exhaling fast with a sense of finality. Kit looked down to her and smiled weakly, reaching up to pet Frisk's hair for a second.

"You feel better now?" Frisk nodded up to her with a meek smile, earning a more relieved grin from Kit. "Good. You wanna sit with Mocha while I go get my crap spilling out over there?"

Frisk turned her head to follow Kit's hand pointed over to the backpack nearby, then looked back up to Kit with a compliant nod. She crawled out of Kit's lap, sat down by herself and gently pulled the big, fuzzy cat into her lap, hiding half her face in Mocha's fur. Mocha allowed her without fuss or complaint. Kit nodded and slowly pushed herself up, stretching her back as the ache in her back and shoulders was finally starting to hit her.

"Ow... Yep, gonna be feeling that for a while," she groaned, reaching a hand up to rub her face before trudging over to her backpack. 

She kneeled down to her backpack and reached in to pull out the sleep silver laptop, checking it over for a second to be sure it wasn't damaged. Once she was sure it was fine, she sighed in relief, slid it back in, and started to store the other fallen contents back into their appropriate pockets. Once she was done, she zipped all of the compartments up and dragged it with her back over to Frisk, setting it down and plopping down beside her.

"Well, at least nothing was broken," Kit reported, much to Frisk's relief, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her cell phone. Pressing the home button, she was greeted with the "no service" text in the corner of the screen; all she could do was roll her eyes and pinch the bridge of her nose in irritation. "Oh. Duh."

"Did you just try to use your cell phone?" Frisk enquired with an incredulous tone and a suspicious squint.

Kit paused for a moment, lips pursed as her eyes trailed to her phone that she started to slyly try sliding back into her pocket. She didn't mind Frisk's blindness at all, she was perfectly willing to adapt and help her catch up on what was going on, but she would have been lying if she said she didn't appreciate how convinient it was sometimes. If only during small moments like this where she could attempt to save face

"No..." She insisted much more slowly than she should have, earning a sly, teasing from Frisk.

"Uh-huh, it didn't have service, did it?"

Kit had no response to that. Her lips just tightened together as her eyes narrowed over to the wall. Frisk just laughed with a shake of her head.

"Well, duh, what'd you think was gonna happen? We're underground," Frisk pointed out very bluntly with a confused/critical perch of one brow. 

"I'm very aware of that, Frisk," Kit shot back in gentle sarcasm as she looked back up to the opening above them. "Well... can't call anyone, can't go back the way we came. Unless you brought rope or a ladder or something."

"Oh, gosh, I wish this wasn't the one day I forget to bring my  _really tiny ladder_  to the  _park,_ " Frisk retorted, resting her chin atop Mocha's head with a roll of her eyes back up to Kit with that 'I'll give you a minute to figure out what went wrong with that sentence' look.

"I'll take that as a no," Kit chuckled slightly with a playful eyeroll of her own before pushing off on the ground and pulling her backpack up, soon sliding the straps over her shoulders. "Welp, since we can't go back up or have anyone pull us out... we can either sit around and wait for something to come eat us, or see what's up ahead."

Kit looked back down to Frisk to give her a second to gauge their options. Frisk stroked Mocha's fur in thought for a second before looking back up in Kit's direction with a pinched brow, her arms squeezing Mocha's body a little tighter. Mocha still seemed relatively undeterred by whatever Frisk did to her.

"There's nothing down here that would really  _eat_ us, is there?" She asked in an uncertain murmur.

"Nah," Kit assured her, coming closer to pat her head. "I was just being hyperbolic; we really don't have any other options besides moving forward. The 'stay put and wait for help' rule doesn't really apply at the moment; the only people who know we're down here are two people we don't  _want_ to come looking for us again. So.. we're probably gonna have to try to find our own exit."

Frisk opened her mouth to respond, but it closed when nothing came out, visibly shivering a little. Her face fell as she shuddered slightly, nodding in understanding. Kit slowly knelt down to Frisk's level, consciously shifting her tone to sound gentler, more reassuring as she brought a hand to Frisk's shoulder. Thankfully, she knew she didn't have to force a smile that Frisk wouldn't have been able to see; made focusing on her tone much easier. She could see the fear and concern in Frisk's tight expression and her slight rocking back and forth, and Kit had a pretty good idea where it was coming from.

"You scared there might be monsters down here?" She gently asked. Frisk's soft brown skin grew dark and her face scrunched up from embarrassment before the small child nodded, and Kit squeezed her shoulder gently to remind her of her presence. "Hey, there's nothing to be embarrassed about; it's okay to be scared. It's a scary situation, especially after what just happened. But--look, no matter what we run into down here, if we even run into anything at all... we're gonna take this one step and a time and figure this out. Just keep a hold of my clothes or my hand, alright?"

Frisk's rocking didn't stop, in fact they grew deeper and went further back and forward the more Kit spoke. But once Kit was done, she nuzzled her face into the back of Mocha's head, mumbling something in thought before looking back up to Kit with a tiny, comforted smile and nodding her head. Kit's smile broadened as she reached up to ruffle Frisk's hair slightly.

"Good girl," Kit laughed as she stood back up, reaching out her hand to wait for Frisk to offer her hers. "Now get up and grab my hand. Sooner we get going, the sooner we start figuring things out and start making some progress. You can hold Mocha's leash, if you want."

Frisk nodded in agreement, putting Mocha down and pushing herself back up to standing. She felt along Mocha's fur to find her collar and then the small extendable leash clipped onto it, grabbing onto the holster with one hand before reaching up and searching for Kit's hand with the other. Kit clasped her hand gently and nodded in finality.

"Okay," she murmured to no one in particular, taking one last look up to the thick ribbons of light shining down from above them before turning to face the gateway leading towards the rest of the caverns that lie ahead. "Let's go see what's what."

Kit tugged on Frisk's hand lightly to help guide her along and Frisk quickly followed along. Kit could notice Frisk turning her head around, looking around to try to listen out for... well, anything. It was an instinctual thing Frisk did, Kit knew by now, but the echo of the narrow caverns were going to make pinning down a direction for anything exceedingly difficult for the child. She could only hope things widened out or became more insulated as they continued. 

Once they entered the new tunnel, most of the light seemed to vanish, cut off from the outside world. Frisk whimpered slightly when the few shapes and colors she could see vanished with the lack of light, and Kit gave her hand a small squeeze to assure her she was still there. She slid her phone out of her pocket and accessed the default flashlight app to light up the rest of the dark gloomy tunnel. Nothing but dark dead rock, but hey, she could see the floor in front of her now. Well, at least her phone was good for  _something_ , even if it made the atmosphere of the situation a lot spookier.

The trek through the small, dark corridor was a quiet one. Kit normally would have tried to fill the silence with conversation, but neither Kit nor Frisk were exactly massive conversationalists; both were equally terrible with small talk and both of them knew that. Kit occasionally tilted her phone to look to the wall to see if there was anything there she might have been missing, but no; just rock. Made sense so far, nothing out of the ordinary...

As they continued to travel for a few minutes, they cut into a new hollowed out cavern, not much bigger than the one they were just in. Moving the phone around, Kit could see that it was just dead rock on all sides, a bizarrely grassy floor, and one doorway across the way from them, surrounded by yet another pillared archway. From the archway, some faint light was shining through, and judging by how it seemed to move and flicker, it was fire light of some kind. She was able to turn the phone off and put it back in her pocket as the rest of the cavern was somewhat lit with this light.

Looking down, she noticed that instead of a massive flower bed, this grassy patch had just one golden flower in the very middle of it. Frisk couldn't see it, of course, and just saw the flood of light. She gasped and tried to move forward, tugging on Mocha's leash and Kit's hand. This was the only point where Mocha seemed to take initiative and move closer to the flower, attempting to sniff its bright yellow petals.

"Look, light!" Frisk pointed out, hopping up in excitement and relief as she tried to move forward. 

"Yeah, looks like another room. I guess someone else is set up down he--"

"Howdy!"

Kit's feet planted themselves firmly where they were, her hand pulling Frisk back to force her to stop as this new voice echoed cheerfully throughout the room. Startled, Frisk jumped back and hid part of herself with Kit's leg, eyes darting around blindly in alarm. Unable to tell where it was coming from at first, Kit frowned and looked around the room to try to determine a source. Kit's ears were alerted to another unusual sound very quickly; hissing. Looking down, Kit watched Mocha lurch away from the flower, let out a strong hiss at it and rush back to Frisk, curling her body around Frisk's legs and ankles, the fur on her back sticking up on end.

"Down here, silly!"

It was only when Kit paid attention to Mocha's out-of-character behavior that Kit noticed some movement in her peripheral. her eyes focused on the flower smiling up at her with a big cheerful grin.

...

It was only at that point that it even registered that this flower had a small, cutesy face on it. Kit's eyes widened down to it as far as they would go. She wasn't sure if it was out of shock or surprise or even horror, she... didn't really know how to respond to seeing a small golden flower with a sweet adorable face on it, waving his petals up to her.

"Howdy!" He repeated with cheerful delight again. "I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!"

Frisk was just opening her mouth to ask what it was when this tiny creature - Flowey, apparently - introduced himself as being a flower. Her brow scrunched in confusion as she looked up to Kit, who, in her stunned daze, could only think to use her free hand to wave down to the charming little guy.

"Uh... Hi," she greeted in a brief awkward laugh. "I'm Katherine... the... human, I guess."

While Flowey seemed relatively harmless, she wasn't keen on giving out her nickname or Frisks's name right off the bat; just her birth name would be fine. She glanced down to Frisk helplessly, who could only think to look down to Flowey, who she only saw as a moving mass of yellow and green, and quietly wave down to him. Flowey's face lit up.

"Wow! And what's you're name?" Flowey asked delightedly over to Frisk.

"I'm Frisk," Frisk greeted with a polite little nod, smiling down to the little creature and giggling a little. "...also the human. And this is Mocha. The cat."

Frisk added this with a little pet to Mocha's head, who seemed to quiet down, but was still oddly on edge, as Kit noted, her tail flicking back and forth nervously. Once he'd gotten all of their names, Flowey looked between the two of them with wide, curious and awe-stricken eyes, like that of a small child coming face to face with mystical, legendary creatures none had ever seen before. Admittedly, after those long minutes of worrying and fussing what the two of them would be met with under the mountain, a sweet little flower was something of a comforting sight.

"Wow... Two whole humans... I guess you two aren't from around here then, are ya?"

"What gave it away?" Kit snorted with a sarcastic roll of her eyes, to which Frisk simply shrugged her shoulder in a similarly helpless manner.

"Well, gosh, it's just," Flowey chuckled sheepishly, ducking his head bashfully. "It's been a real long time since any humans have fallen down here! You guys probably don't know anything about how things work around here, do ya?"

"We just got here," Frisk pointed out with a matter-of-factly shrug and a meek smile.

"Golly... I wouldn't want my new friends to get hurt down here!" Kit's face fell slightly when the word 'golly' was dropped; Flowey's whole vocabulary up until then finally struck her and it felt... odd. Why did she never trust anyone who used words like 'gee' and 'golly'? "Someone oughta teach you two how things work around here..."

Flowey hummed to himself for a moment in thought before looking up to the two of them with big eyes again.

"Well, I guess since no one else is around, little ol' me will have to do!" Flowey waved his little leaves toward him, urging Kit and Frisk down to his level. "Sit down! I wanna show you something."

Kit glanced down to Frisk with a small sense of caution; Mocha was still wrapped around Frisk's legs in some kind of unease, but Frisk just moved her aside and tugged on Kit's hand, urging her to sit down. Kit looked down back to Flowey's sweet, innocent face.

Despite the alarm bells going off in her head, Kit conceded and came closer, kneeling down to sit down beside Frisk. She pulled Frisk into her lap, and Mocha was quick to jump into Frisk's lap in a defensive manner. Once he had their full attention, Flowey cleared his throat and puffed out his... well, all he had was stem, but it was obvious he was trying to puff out his chest to look and sound more important.

"Forst thing's first: can one of you show me your soul, please?"

Flowey simply earned blank looks from the two humans. An awkward silence fell between the three of them and Flowey's face fell the longer he went without an answer. It took Kit and Frisk a second to realize Flowey was dead serious.

"Uh. Do you mean literally?" Frisk murmured with a tilted head.

"Well, duh!" Flowey gawked with quirked not-brows like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and Kit couldn't help giggling; it reminded her too much of how she talked as a child. " _Everything's_  done with your souls down here! Don't you guys show your soul all the time up on the surface?"

"No? Not literally, anyway," Kit admitted with a small shrug, and Flowey seemed genuinely shocked by this.

"Wowie... You don't even know how to expose your souls?" Flowey frowned childishly in thought for a moment. "Oh that won't do... Hm... Well, I've never had to teach anyone before, but I guess I'll give it a shot. I guess the best way would be to simulate a fight..."

"What would faking a fight do?" Kit asked with a tilted head of her own now.

"Well, when a monster wants to hurt a human, or a human wants to hurt a monster, it'll force a human's soul to expose itself," Flowey explained, smiling reassuringly. "But don't worry, I won't hurt you! It's just gonna be a pretend fight, to help you learn how to expose your soul on your own. Are you ready?"

Those alarm bells were coming back. This felt... weird. Why did it feel weird? Why did Kit have that sour, distrusting feeling resurfacing again? Frisk was nodding in excitement, but something was making Kit hesitant. She wasn't even sure why. In the end, though, something possessed her to nod and Flowey sat up nice and tall, practically beaming.

"Great! Here we go! Fight start!"

Almost the very instant Flowey said that, a small, brief flash of light blinked within the darkness, and a small, glimmering shield began to form itself in a large square around the three of them. Kit's arms wrapped tightly around Frisk with uncertainty as she watched this barrier form around the three of them before disappearing, only occasionally flickering with a soft sheen.

"This is called a Fight Circle!" Flowey explained. "It's what happens when a human and a monster go to spar or fight each other. It doesn't always happen with just monsters, I don't think, and I guess humans can't do it on their own where you come from... But don't worry! People can enter or leave the circle, it's just what allows the soul to expose itself. Like this!"

Frisk gasped slightly, clutching at her chest in surprise when a faint red hue began to shimmer and glow from within her ribcage. It bled from her chest in the form in a bright red light, coming together to solidify into the shape of a big, bright red heart, glowing brightly and levitating a few inches away from Frisk's chest. In spite of all the alarms going off in Kit's head, even she couldn't help staring down at it with awe and wonder.

"Ya see? That's your soul," Flowey explained. "The very culmination of your being!"

Intrigued, Frisk brought her hands up to touch it. 

"It's squishy," Frisk noted. "And warm."

Flowey paused for a moment, staring at the both of them and the soul intently for that brief pause before shaking his head.

"Y-Yep! Most souls are! So," Flowey turned to look up to Kit. "Let's see yours now!"

Almost on due, Kit could feel that resurgent, all too familiar feeling of a bright, warm energy filling up inside her ribs and chest. Similarly to Frisk, instead of staying within her chest like it usually did, she could feel this energy flowing out of her body now, in the form of a soft purple and green hue. A large heart formed itself a few I chest from her chest; bright purple, with thick veins of soft green streaking through it to meet a very tiny green heart in the middle. Flowey's eyes widened at the sight."

"Wowie! Yours has  _two_  colors! I guess grown up souls aren't just one color, are they?" 

Kit bright up a hand to feel the soul in front of her chest, prodding at it lightly. It actually seemed to send physical shivers up her spine and small jolts through her nerves; it was soft and sensitive. Something about pawing at it felt... nostalgic in a way. Had she done this before? As a child, maybe? 

"Your souls seem pretty soft and weak, though," Flowey noted. "Don't worry, you can make your souls stronger if you gain some LV!"

"LV?" Frisk asked. "What's LV stand for?"

"What's it stand for? Why LOVE, of course!"

Flowey said that without a shred of irony or self-awareness. While Frisk's blind eyes lit up, Kit visibly frowned this time. Okay, something about this was starting to feel mega-sketchy, in the way a pagent girl telling judges she wished for peace and love and to end world hunger felt extremely fake to anyone with half a brain. 'Love', huh? Well, wasn't that conviniently super peaceful and friendly? 

"LOVE helps the soul protect itself from anyone who might be mean to you," Flowey explained. "So, if you want, I could give you two some LOVE! Just to help you get started!"

Started with what?

Flowey's petals perked up a little, and around him, in the blink of a few lights, several small white bean-sized pellets - about seven - formed around him, floating in mid-air.

"Down here, LOVE is shared through these little white friendliness pellets!"

Kit's bullshit meters were going up further and further the longer this conversation went. Frisk leaned in with expectation, but as Kit looked down and found Mocha growling and raising her haunches, her frown deepened. Mocha was acting defensive for a reason. Something wasn't right. This was too pleasant; it was starting to fee fake.

"Come on, Frisk! Jump up and get as many as you can!"

Moving Mocha out of her lap, Frisk jumped up and moved closer to the small white lights she could see. But as Frisk made her way for the floating pellets that started to target her soul... something called on Kit to reach out a hand as she pushed herself up off the ground with the other.

A faint purple hue surrounded Frisk's tiny frame and pulled her up off of the ground, the pellets whizzing by her to plant themselves into the ground, disappearing upon impact. Now standing with her hand still outstretched and glowing with the same faint purple color, Kit guided Frisk back over into her arms, the glow only fading when she had a physical hold on Frisk.

Whike Frisk twisted around to look at her quizzically and with concern, Flowey simply blinked in confusion.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"That's... nice of you to want to help," Kit murmured with uncertainty and distrust, but every attempt to be polite. "But we can do fine without it, thank you."

The look Flowey gave her was a difficult one to read, but it quickly dawned on her that Flowey wasn't happy to hear this. After a minute though, his bright smile returned; as did the pellets.

"Oh don't be silly! I wouldn't want anything to happen to my new best friends! Please, take it, I insist."

The pellets hovered towards them at chest level now, and Kit simply avoided it. They weren't exactly fast.

"R-Really, it's fine, thank you," she insisted firmly.

"Come on now, you want your soul to be strong to protect you two from bad monsters, don't you?"

"Look, you've been polite and helpful and everything, but this has slowly gotten increasingly sketchy, and I gotta ask," Kit explained with a furrowed brow down to him. "How do we know those won't actually hurt us? If they're so harmless, why don't we see you hit your own soul with it? Just to reassure us it's fine."

Flowey's smile fell... and grew a little dark this time. There was frustration there for a moment before his smile returned, and formed into a grin. Except it wasn't the sweet, polite and friendly one from before. It was something far more twisted and sinister.

"...Oh. I see." His friendly tone had disappeared altogether too, and Kit wrapped her free arm around Frisk, who looked down to Flowey in shock at his change of tone. "You know  _exactly_  what's going on here, don't you? You just wanted to string me along and frustrate me for a little while before pulling the rug out from under me, huh?"

The pellets returned beside him now, and Mocha began to hiss more loudly at him as he started to giggle in a dark, sadistic sort of way. 

"Well, can't say I didn't try, right?"

Instead of slowly hovering towards them, the pellets practically shot at the two of them. Kit was barely able to react in time, blocking Frisk's soul with her thin, delicate arm. The pellets pierced the jacket and the skin underneath, and it felt like a small burst of fire against her skin. Not expecting the pain, Kit lurched back and hissed sharply, gritting her teeth as Frisk gasped in fright and covered her ears. Mocha shrieked defensively, but Frisk quickly grabbed ahold of her before she could lunge for Flowey.

"You idiots, don't you get it? In this world, it's kill or be killed!" Flowey cackled smugly. "Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like this?!"

As Kit attempted to stand, the next second she looked up, having only made it to a knee, dozens upon dozens of those small white bullets had been conjured around them on all sides, as Flowey looked up to them with a wide, sadistic, face-splitting grin.

" ** _DIE_**."

Kit's eyes widened when then bullets began to move closer. She stumbled trying to stand, and looking behind her, she found them swarming from behind her back too. Her mind went blank in a blaze of panic. They were all at waist, chest, and leg level; she had nowhere to go. Looking back down to Frisk for a brief second, two things happened in that split half-second: her first and only active instinct left was to protect Frisk, and it quickly dawned on her that these bullets immediately vanished on impact. There was nothing else her few rationally thinking brain cells had.

Wrapping both arms around her and Mocha, Kit collapsed down to the ground and shielded the child and cat with her own body. Her breath halted and strained in her chest as she heard Frisk gasp and squirm beneath Flower's laughter echoing against the cavern walls. Honestly, she wasn't sure if this was going to work or if she'd be able to run after this, but God willing, at least Frisk would be able to run once the bullets vanished.

Though she waited for the blows to hit and demolish her, the attacks never landed. The area around them suddenly lit up with crackling heat and light. Looking up, Kit found that a small wall of fire had intercepted the attacks and surrounded the three of them, separating them from Flowey.

"Hey, what the--?!"

Before Flowey could finish his astonished, cry, the fire rapidly concentrated into a single fireball, which hurled itself at Flowey at full force. Though she could hear his shriek, Kit couldn't tell if the fire actually hit him or not. The grass where he once was laid charred and burned as the fire vanished and Kit finally felt okay sitting up and little Frisk onto her feet. 

"What a miserable creature," she heard a woman's voice murmur to herself from the archway as a figure started to come forward from the other side of it. "Torturing such poor children such as these..."

Kit wrapped her arms around Frisk again as she pushed herself back up to standing, watching the woman draw closer to them. With Kit's adjusted vision, she could finally see who had come to their rescue. Standing just half a foot taller than her, a tall, goat-like creature covered in soft white fur, wearing a simple purple-and-white dress with a white emblem on the front, looking down to the three of them with soft, motherly maroon eyes. Her expression was kind and reassuring, obviously sensing Kit and Frisk's anxiety.

"Please, do not be afraid," she pleaded gently. "I am Toriel, the caretaker of the Ruins. I won't hurt you."

Kit blinked in surprise, unsure of how well she could trust this woman - Toriel, apparently - immediately after what happened with the flower. She could feel Frisk relax a little in her arms, though, and Mocha didn't seem to be behaving abnormally anymore, so she was at least willing to hear Toriel out for the time being.

"I understand if you do not trust me, young one, but I assure you, I mean you no harm," Toriel assured them kindly. "I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down. It is my duty to keep the peace in the place. You can trust me."

Kit's muscles slowly unclenched the longer Toriel spoke. She looked down to Frisk to check on her, and Frisk seemed visibly calmer by this point, smiling up to where she was hearing the voice coming from. Faced with few other options, Kit softly sighed out the rest of her nerves, and she finally nodded.

"...Thanks for saving us, ma'am," she breathed softly as she let Frisk down onto her feet with Mocha now, smiling shyly up to Toriel with one hand resting on Frisk's head. "I'm Katherine. And this is Frisk."

Frisk gave Toriel a polite, meek wave and smile, one arm still hooked around Mocha. She finally seemed to be at ease and she picked Mocha up with both hands to show her off to Toriel.

"Mocha," she introduced very simply, beaming slightly up to Toriel as Mocha did little bit stare up at Toriel with her tongue blepping out slightly.

Toriel laughed softly behind the back of her hand and smiled warmly down to them.

"It is very nice to meet you all." She slowly turned back to the archway and beckoned for them to follow her. "Come. I can guide you through the Ruins. There is safe refuge at the end of the caverns."

Trusting them to follow, Toriel turned around all the way and headed further into the Ruins. Kit slowly looked down to Frisk with a perched brown and small smirk.

"What do you think, kiddo? Think the goat lady's okay?"

Frisk took a brief pause, holding Mocha close to her chest, to think it over before looking back up to where Toriel originally was with a sweet smile.

"Goat Mom."

Kit wasn't going to even attempt pretending to know what Frisk meant by that. She just laughed and shook her head.

"I'll take that as a go ahead," she giggled, patting Frisk's head playfully. "Grab on."

Frisk nodded and set Mocha down on her feet, grabbing the leash with one hand and grabbing the hem of Kit's jacket with the other. Confident that Frisk had a strong enough grip, Kit took a slow, deep breath, gripped hold of the straps of her backpack, and took her first steps forward into the Ruins.


End file.
